Sen. Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign appearance called a "Conversation with Nevadans" at Hug High School in Reno, Nev. on Sunday, April 29, 2007. / David B. Parker / Reno Gazette-Journal

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U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke to a packed house and noisy crowd during her first-ever campaign stop in Reno on Sunday, telling a standing-room-only crowd at Hug High School that she will get U.S. troops out of Iraq if she is elected president.

"If this president does not end this war before he leaves office, when I am president, I will," Clinton, D-N.Y., said, causing the crowd of about 3,500 to roar with approval.

Clinton also promised to take better care of the nation's "wounded warriors" when they return from Iraq.

Clinton also tossed some blame for U.S. immigration issues to our Latin American neighbors.

"I think we've got to do more to tell the countries to our south that it is time they started creating jobs for their own people and do it quickly," Clinton said.

After Clinton's speech and subsequent question-and-

answer period, many left feeling fired up for Hillary.

"I absolutely would vote for her," said Norma Lessard, 60, who drove 100 miles from Schurz to see Clinton. "I'm ready for a change, how about you?"

Clinton's stop was spiced up with a performance from the Polynesian Hug Hawka dance troupe and a rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner" by Hug sophomore Camille Benton.

Clinton singled out Benton for her performance at the beginning of her speech.

Benton left impressed.

"I love her," Benton said. "If I could vote in 2008, I would vote for her but I'm only going to 17."

Other Clinton supporters said Clinton's performance would have changed the minds of people who dislike her.

"One of my girlfriends for 25 years just cringes when she hears Hillary's name," said Suzy Valle, 55 and a teacher at Roger Corbett Elementary. "She is only believing the things that people tell her, what a horrible person she is, instead of finding out for herself.

"I think there is a lot of animosity for Hillary," Valle said. "But people need to open their minds and investigate for themselves and not just believe what they are being told."

Clinton also spoke to middle-class frustrations of seeing costs of energy and health care rising without the same rise in paychecks.

"Too many people today feel that they are invisible to the government," Clinton said.

She spoke of failed domestic policies of the Bush administration, citing 90,000 people who still live in trailers along the Gulf Coast in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

"You sure are invisible to the people in Washington," Clinton said.

Clinton also took about

10 questions from the audience after her speech. Clinton answered questions on immigration, wild horse protection and college debt. She was asked if she would always tell the truth.

"I will do my very best," Clinton replied.

She was asked why President Bush and Vice President Cheney could not be removed from office by provisions of the Homeland Security Act.

After the cheers subsided, Clinton said: "That's what I love about these conversations, I get asked things, I have no idea."

"Many people are very anxious to turn the page on this administration, but we're going to have to try to get more political support from Republicans to try and stop more things from happening that they (Bush administration) might try to do and to hold them in check until the elections," she said later. "I don't think the numbers in Congress would support any other move."

"We are ready to try to end this war in Iraq. I am so proud of your Sen. Harry Reid," she said about the Senate majority leader from Nevada, eliciting a 15-second standing ovation.

Clinton praised Reid's efforts to pass a military spending bill with a timetable to begin redeploying troops out of Iraq by October but admitted she doubts Bush ever will go along with it.

"I wish I could tell you that he's going to ... start listening to the will of the American people," she said. "I wish I could tell you that he will change direction. But I think we are going to have a very difficult time because he is convinced he is right."

"If he were standing here today, he would tell you all he is convinced he's right. He believes that history will judge him to be right. I think he is woefully mistaken about that," Clinton said to cheers.

Clinton said she advocates redeploying U.S. combat troops "immediately."

"We should take them out of this sectarian civil war where they're not even sure whose side they are fighting on," she said.

"We should also do more to require the Iraqi government to defend itself. We can't win this war for them. It's their war," she said.